Note: If a donor is deceased, the symbol (‡) follows the name.
DeWitt Wallace‡
Lila Acheson Wallace‡
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The Wallace Foundation is the current manifestation of the philanthropic legacy of DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace, who created a series of family foundations in the mid 1950s and 1960s. By 2003, the various foundations had merged and adopted the current name. Immediately prior to this merger, there were two foundations known as the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
Founded by the late DeWitt and Lila Wallace. Married in 1921, Lila and DeWitt moved to New York City and published the first edition of Readers Digest in Jan. 1922. From an initial circulation of 5,000, the "little magazine" started by the Wallaces quickly caught on, and over time it became the foundation of a worldwide publishing organization. Once their livelihood was secured, they were able to turn to their first love, helping people.
The foundation is a signatory to Philanthropy's Promise, and consequently, will be committing a significant percentage of their grantmaking dollars to meeting the needs of underserved communities, including the financial support of advocacy and civic engagement
At the close of 2009 the market value of the foundation's assets totaled $1.2 billion, a 15 percent increase over the 2008 value ($1.1 billion)
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Giving on a national basis.
No support for religious or fraternal organizations; environmental or conservation programs, health, medical or social service programs, international programs, or for private foundations.
No grants to individuals, or for annual campaigns, emergency funds, historical restoration, capital campaigns, or for deficit financing.
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The foundation's mission is to enable institutions to expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people. The foundation does this by supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices. To achieve their mission, they have three objectives: strengthen education leadership to improve student achievement; enhance out-of-school time learning opportunities; and build appreciation and demand for the arts.
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The grantmaker has identified the following area(s) of interest:
Building Appreciation and Demand for the Arts
The foundation's work in the arts consists of two components: the Wallace Excellence Awards, which provide support to exemplary arts organizations in selected cities to identify, develop, and share effective ideas and practices to reach more people; and Arts For Young people, whose goal is to help selected cities develop effective approaches for expanding high-quality arts learning opportunities both inside and outside of school and to capture and share lessons that can benefit many other cities and arts organizations.
Education Leadership
Research shows that high-quality leadership is second only to instruction among school-based factors in its impact on learning. The foundation's goal, therefore, is to develop and test approaches in state and district sites that can improve the quality of leadership and leaders' impact on teaching and learning; capture lessons from our sites and funded research; and share them within our network and beyond to strengthen the work of our states and districts and enable other sites that will never receive our funding to benefit.
Matching Gifts
The foundation matches the monetary gifts of its staff to charitable organizations up to $2,000 per employee per year.
Out-of-School Time Learning
The foundation's goal is to develop and test ways in which cities can plan and implement strategies that increase overall participation in high quality out-of-school learning programs so that children, especially those with the highest needs, attend often enough to gain learning and developmental benefits.
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Subjects
Arts
Education
Education, community/cooperative
Education, services
Leadership development
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National
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Conferences/seminars
Employee matching gifts
General/operating support
Management development/capacity building
Program development
Program evaluation
Publication
Research
Technical assistance
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Annual report (including application guidelines)
Financial statement
Grants list
Occasional report
Program policy statement (including application guidelines)
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Unsolicited proposals are rarely funded. Application form not required. Initial approach: Letter of inquiry; no proposals for initial approach
Board meeting date(s): 4 times per year
Deadline(s): None
Final notification: Usually within 4 weeks from receipt of letter of inquiry
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Note: An asterisk (*) following an individual's name indicates an officer who is also a trustee or director. Kevin W. Kennedy,* Chairperson
Affiliation(s):
Hamilton College, Life Trustee
Metropolitan Opera, Managing Director and Secretary-Treasurer
New York Public Library, Trustee
Goldman Sachs & Co., Managing Director
William I. Miller,* President Holly Dodge, Corp. Secretary and Grants Admin. Rob D. Nagel, Treasurer and Director, Investments Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr.
National Writing Project, Vice Chairperson and Board Member
Bank Street College of Education, President
Susan J. Kropf
Affiliation(s):
MeadWestvaco Corp., Board Member
Sherwin-Williams Co., Board Member
Coach, Inc., Board Member
Ann S. Moore
Affiliation(s):
Time Inc., Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Avon Products, Inc., Director
Joseph W. Polisi
Affiliation(s):
The Julliard School, President
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Number of Staff
33 full-time professional
19 full-time support
Key Staff
Note: Does not include officers. Ayeola Boothe-Kinlaw, Sr. Program Officer, Education Sharon W. Clark, Director, Operations Nancy Devine, Director, Communities Mary E. Geras, Director, Finance Lucas B. Held, Director, Communications Ariana Hellerman, Program Associate, Arts Richard D. Laine, Director, Education Pamela Mendels, Sr. Writer, Communications Lee Mitgang, Director, Editorial Services Edward Pauly, Ph.D., Director, Research and Evaluation Ebonie Pittman, Program Associate, Arts Dara Rose, Sr. Officer, Communities Jessica Schwartz, Sr. Communications Officer Polly Singh, Program Associate, Communities Jody Spiro, Sr. Officer, Education Ann Stone, Sr. Officer, Research and Evaluation Daniel Windham, Director, Arts
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Regional Associations of Grantmakers
Donors Forum (IL)
Philanthropy New York
Affinity Groups
Grantmakers In the Arts
Grantmakers for Education
The Communications Network
Associations and Other Philanthropic Organizations
Council on Foundations
Independent Sector
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Year ended 12/31/09:
Assets: $1,279,832,854 (market value)
Expenditures: $62,414,327
Total giving: $49,800,502
Qualifying distributions: $49,800,502
Giving activities include:
$49,776,050 for 152 grants (high: $2,500,000; low: $2,500)
$24,452 for employee matching gifts
Estimated financial data for year ending 12/31/10:
Assets: $1,406,000,000
Grants: $39,080,000
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County: New York
Metropolitan area: New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
Congressional district: New York District 8
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The following grants were reported in 2010:
$4,000,000 to Building Educated Leaders for Life Foundation, Dorchester, MA. For general operating support to execute the strategic plan, payable over 3 years.
$3,000,000 to Higher Achievement Program, Washington, DC. For general operating support to execute strategic plan, and expansion of ongoing program evaluation by P/PV to assess impacts of after-school and summer program components, payable over 3 years.
$2,000,000 to Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. For matching grant for federal Investing in Innovation grant - to support project READS, payable over 5 years.
$2,000,000 to KIPP Foundation, San Francisco, CA. For matching grant for federal Investing in Innovation grant - to support scaling up KIPP's effective leadership development model, payable over 5 years.
$750,000 to National Public Radio, Washington, DC. For Communications Partnership to support coverage of the arts, education and out-of-school time issues and to continue to broaden awareness of The Wallace Foundation through on air and podcast acknowledgements, payable over 1 year.
$750,000 to National Public Radio, Washington, DC. For a communications grant to bring greater national focus to issues in education leadership, more time for learning, arts learning and to engage policymakers and practitioners in a position to improve educational outcomes for the nations students, payable over 1 year.
$350,000 to Learning Matters, New York, NY. For coverage of Wallace's areas of interest: education leadership, out-of-school time (OST), arts learning, and more time for learning, payable over 1 year.
$250,000 to Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC. To assist Wallace in planning a conference of thought leaders to explore the topic of reimagining the school day and its link to school improvement, payable over 1 year.
$45,000 to Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, DC. To plan and facilitate a meeting of representatives from school districts participating in Wallace's arts learning initiative, payable over 1 year.
$25,000 to Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, DC. For the work of the Arts Education Partnership to advance arts learning for children, payable over 1 year. Want to see more grants for this grantmaker?Try our Search Grants database.
At A Glance
The Wallace Foundation
(formerly Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds)5 Penn Plz., 7th Fl.
New York, NY 10001-1837
Telephone: (212) 251-9700
Contact: Genl. Mgmt.
Fax: (212) 679-6990
E-mail: info@wallacefoundati...
URL: www.wallacefoundation.org
Type of Grantmaker
Independent foundationIRS Exemption Status
501(c)(3)Additional Descriptor
Celebrity foundation: Business====Financial Data====(yr. ended 12/31/09)
Assets: $1,279,832,854
Total giving: $49,800,502
EIN
136183757990-PF
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 20022001The IRS has announced processing errors on electronically filed Forms 990 for filing years 2007-2009. Learn More»
Grants DatabaseKnowledge Center
The Wallace Foundation's Philanthropy Promise
RSS Feed
Twitter
YouTube
Note: If a donor is deceased, the symbol (‡) follows the name.DeWitt Wallace‡
Lila Acheson Wallace‡
The Wallace Foundation is the current manifestation of the philanthropic legacy of DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace, who created a series of family foundations in the mid 1950s and 1960s. By 2003, the various foundations had merged and adopted the current name. Immediately prior to this merger, there were two foundations known as the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.Founded by the late DeWitt and Lila Wallace. Married in 1921, Lila and DeWitt moved to New York City and published the first edition of Readers Digest in Jan. 1922. From an initial circulation of 5,000, the "little magazine" started by the Wallaces quickly caught on, and over time it became the foundation of a worldwide publishing organization. Once their livelihood was secured, they were able to turn to their first love, helping people.
The foundation is a signatory to Philanthropy's Promise, and consequently, will be committing a significant percentage of their grantmaking dollars to meeting the needs of underserved communities, including the financial support of advocacy and civic engagement
At the close of 2009 the market value of the foundation's assets totaled $1.2 billion, a 15 percent increase over the 2008 value ($1.1 billion)
Giving on a national basis.No support for religious or fraternal organizations; environmental or conservation programs, health, medical or social service programs, international programs, or for private foundations.
No grants to individuals, or for annual campaigns, emergency funds, historical restoration, capital campaigns, or for deficit financing.
The foundation's mission is to enable institutions to expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people. The foundation does this by supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices. To achieve their mission, they have three objectives: strengthen education leadership to improve student achievement; enhance out-of-school time learning opportunities; and build appreciation and demand for the arts.
The grantmaker has identified the following area(s) of interest:Building Appreciation and Demand for the Arts
The foundation's work in the arts consists of two components: the Wallace Excellence Awards, which provide support to exemplary arts organizations in selected cities to identify, develop, and share effective ideas and practices to reach more people; and Arts For Young people, whose goal is to help selected cities develop effective approaches for expanding high-quality arts learning opportunities both inside and outside of school and to capture and share lessons that can benefit many other cities and arts organizations.Education Leadership
Research shows that high-quality leadership is second only to instruction among school-based factors in its impact on learning. The foundation's goal, therefore, is to develop and test approaches in state and district sites that can improve the quality of leadership and leaders' impact on teaching and learning; capture lessons from our sites and funded research; and share them within our network and beyond to strengthen the work of our states and districts and enable other sites that will never receive our funding to benefit.Matching Gifts
The foundation matches the monetary gifts of its staff to charitable organizations up to $2,000 per employee per year.Out-of-School Time Learning
The foundation's goal is to develop and test ways in which cities can plan and implement strategies that increase overall participation in high quality out-of-school learning programs so that children, especially those with the highest needs, attend often enough to gain learning and developmental benefits.Subjects
ArtsEducation
Education, community/cooperative
Education, services
Leadership development
National
Conferences/seminarsEmployee matching gifts
General/operating support
Management development/capacity building
Program development
Program evaluation
Publication
Research
Technical assistance
Annual report (including application guidelines)Financial statement
Grants list
Occasional report
Program policy statement (including application guidelines)
Unsolicited proposals are rarely funded. Application form not required. Initial approach: Letter of inquiry; no proposals for initial approachBoard meeting date(s): 4 times per year
Deadline(s): None
Final notification: Usually within 4 weeks from receipt of letter of inquiry
Note: An asterisk (*) following an individual's name indicates an officer who is also a trustee or director.Kevin W. Kennedy,* Chairperson
Affiliation(s):
Hamilton College, Life Trustee
Metropolitan Opera, Managing Director and Secretary-Treasurer
New York Public Library, Trustee
Goldman Sachs & Co., Managing Director
William I. Miller,* President
Holly Dodge, Corp. Secretary and Grants Admin.
Rob D. Nagel, Treasurer and Director, Investments
Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr.
Affiliation(s):
Verizon, Vice-Chairperson and President
Hewlett-Packard Company, Board Member
ARAMARK Corporation, Board Member
Stevens Institute of Technology, Trustee
Warburg Pincus, Sr. Advisor
Lower Manhattan Development Corp., Board Member
The New York Botanical Garden, Board Member
Candace K. Beinecke
W. Don Cornwell
Affiliation(s):
Pfizer, Inc., Board Member
Avon Products, Inc., Board Member
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of New York, Trustee
Granite Broadcasting Corporation, Chief Executive Officer
Linda Darling-Hammond
Augusta Souza Kappner
Affiliation(s):
National Writing Project, Vice Chairperson and Board Member
Bank Street College of Education, President
Susan J. Kropf
Affiliation(s):
MeadWestvaco Corp., Board Member
Sherwin-Williams Co., Board Member
Coach, Inc., Board Member
Ann S. Moore
Affiliation(s):
Time Inc., Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer
Avon Products, Inc., Director
Joseph W. Polisi
Affiliation(s):
The Julliard School, President
Number of Staff
33 full-time professional19 full-time support
Key Staff
Note: Does not include officers.
Ayeola Boothe-Kinlaw, Sr. Program Officer, Education
Sharon W. Clark, Director, Operations
Nancy Devine, Director, Communities
Mary E. Geras, Director, Finance
Lucas B. Held, Director, Communications
Ariana Hellerman, Program Associate, Arts
Richard D. Laine, Director, Education
Pamela Mendels, Sr. Writer, Communications
Lee Mitgang, Director, Editorial Services
Edward Pauly, Ph.D., Director, Research and Evaluation
Ebonie Pittman, Program Associate, Arts
Dara Rose, Sr. Officer, Communities
Jessica Schwartz, Sr. Communications Officer
Polly Singh, Program Associate, Communities
Jody Spiro, Sr. Officer, Education
Ann Stone, Sr. Officer, Research and Evaluation
Daniel Windham, Director, Arts
Regional Associations of Grantmakers
Donors Forum (IL)Philanthropy New York
Affinity Groups
Grantmakers In the ArtsGrantmakers for Education
The Communications Network
Associations and Other Philanthropic Organizations
Council on FoundationsIndependent Sector
Year ended 12/31/09:
Assets: $1,279,832,854 (market value)Expenditures: $62,414,327
Total giving: $49,800,502
Qualifying distributions: $49,800,502
Giving activities include:
$49,776,050 for 152 grants (high: $2,500,000; low: $2,500)
$24,452 for employee matching gifts
Estimated financial data for year ending 12/31/10:
Assets: $1,406,000,000Grants: $39,080,000
County: New YorkMetropolitan area: New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
Congressional district: New York District 8
The following grants were reported in 2010:$4,000,000 to Building Educated Leaders for Life Foundation, Dorchester, MA. For general operating support to execute the strategic plan, payable over 3 years.
$3,000,000 to Higher Achievement Program, Washington, DC. For general operating support to execute strategic plan, and expansion of ongoing program evaluation by P/PV to assess impacts of after-school and summer program components, payable over 3 years.
$2,000,000 to Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. For matching grant for federal Investing in Innovation grant - to support project READS, payable over 5 years.
$2,000,000 to KIPP Foundation, San Francisco, CA. For matching grant for federal Investing in Innovation grant - to support scaling up KIPP's effective leadership development model, payable over 5 years.
$750,000 to National Public Radio, Washington, DC. For Communications Partnership to support coverage of the arts, education and out-of-school time issues and to continue to broaden awareness of The Wallace Foundation through on air and podcast acknowledgements, payable over 1 year.
$750,000 to National Public Radio, Washington, DC. For a communications grant to bring greater national focus to issues in education leadership, more time for learning, arts learning and to engage policymakers and practitioners in a position to improve educational outcomes for the nations students, payable over 1 year.
$350,000 to Learning Matters, New York, NY. For coverage of Wallace's areas of interest: education leadership, out-of-school time (OST), arts learning, and more time for learning, payable over 1 year.
$250,000 to Academy for Educational Development, Washington, DC. To assist Wallace in planning a conference of thought leaders to explore the topic of reimagining the school day and its link to school improvement, payable over 1 year.
$45,000 to Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, DC. To plan and facilitate a meeting of representatives from school districts participating in Wallace's arts learning initiative, payable over 1 year.
$25,000 to Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington, DC. For the work of the Arts Education Partnership to advance arts learning for children, payable over 1 year.
Want to see more grants for this grantmaker? Try our Search Grants database.